(feel free to click on the image for a better view - my camera was not at it's best taking these images)

I never thought I'd be a woman who loved to wear red...

When I was a young girl, pink was my primary color of choice, though I would often draw flowers in pink with red accents. Those two colors looked well together to me =-)

As I grew older, I moved toward Rose since it seemed to be a more sophisticated shade of pink. I also grew to love Burgundy - deep rich shades of Burgundy and Wine*. I wanted to wrap myself in those colors but trying to locate clothing of those deep rich colors was not always easy so when I would find Crimson**, I would often settle for that since it was close to Burgundy and Wine, but leaning toward Red more than Purple...

I should have seen this would be a slippery slope!! ;)

I have quite a bit of 'red' in my closet now and a few red handbags in my collection. Most of the red I'm surrounded in is deep red, not fire-engine red, though I have the coloring to pull that shade off. I don't wear a lot of red when I wear it so I don't have a red dress...though I would love to own this dress I designed!

Here is the inspiration piece:

I saw this huge bloom while out on a walk during a bad day at the office. It was the deep shades of red I love and the pointed petals got my brain going while walking off my 'bad mood'...I began to dream of a red dress with black contrasting details and sharp points at the neckline and at the hem.

I also thought of the line from "Breakfast at Tiffany's" with Audrey Hepburn. I never quite understood how she could mix-up the color of red with "feeling blue", but I always loved the concept of "the raging reds" - it summed up my mood while out on that walk!

Here is the final result, in detail:

I came up with the 'tag line' for my dress when I thought about what had inspired it: a BAD mood ;)

The colors I used from my color pencil collection - I was lucky to have a pencil called "raspberry"!

I listed the fabrics I would use since I didn't have any proper swatches to attach to this design...

So there you have it! The "Raging Red Dress" designed by yours truly...and if you'd like to see what the rest of the participants are up to, check out the Flickr group here - they are all VERY creative!

Do you have a color you associate with some of your moods? Do you have a color you like to look at but not wear? Are there color names you find funny? I always thought "puce" was the funniest name for a color and I thought it was in the green family - I guess I got it mixed up with "chartreuse"! Hmmm, there could be a poem in there somewhere... =-)

FYI - the rest of my week improved, especially when I got my confirmation for my place in Nina Bagley's class at the Artful Journey Retreat!YAY!!

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* - these are very Scorpio colors!**- I mean the darker shade of crimson - OU Crimson

Well, hel-lo gor-juss!! I love her! And, yes, these are our colors, aren't they? There's something about these shades of red/purple that invoke the passion, the desire, and the unbridled freedom within when either wearing or creating with such strong colors.

Love love love! You should totally make this dress for yourself! I can definitely see how great you look in red....red isnt my color really (maybe i just go for the wrong shade!). I love that you not only met the challenge but you also designed something gorgeous for yourself too. yay! xx